it's really simple so simple people obviously overlook it, and it is simply Squall is afraid of getting close to anyone so he fights it untill, like Takero said, he didn't wanna acknowledge how much Rinoa (and the others) meant to him untill he thaught there may be a chance she was gone for good... he is so afraid of loss that he tries to distance himself from others emotionaly, it's a dissassociative disorder, i went through the same thing in my teen years (and still a little bit to this day) so i understand where the character of Squall is coming from... and i have to agree this game has better/more character development than most of the Old-School FFs, 'cept maybe FFVI, those that deny it just don't get it and thats okay, i guess you have to go through an emotional rolorcoster simmilar to Squalls in order to really get what the writers were doing, don't just judge by the surface but look deeper at the foundation and it becomes apparent why the surface looks the way it does...